Subterms
Toronto designer Paolo Ferrari has created the interiors for Alchemy, a marijuana dispensary that “rejects staid cannabis clichés” with mirrored ceilings and custom-made sniff jars connected to digital display screens. More
Chinese architecture Studio PIG Design has created a showroom for the Memphis Milano furniture brand in Hangzhou, China, with interiors designed to make customers “feel the atmosphere of Memphis”. More
Colourful display stands are meant to appear like artworks within this eyewear store in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia created by French designer Pierre Brocas and architect Nada Oudghiri.Located in the Mall of Dhahran, the 100-square-metre retail space is the first flagship store for Dubai glasses brand Eyewa.
“Our wish was to move away from typical eyewear retail atmospheres,” said Brocas. “When you think of eyewear stores, you usually have something clinical in mind – all products are regimented under strong bleached lights. When Eyewa approached us, we felt we had to design something bold.”
Undulating clay walls envelop the interior
The store’s shell was conceived as a grey capsule with terrazzo flooring and undulating clay walls, designed to wrap the store “like a thin sheet of paper”.
“These waves add softness to the surroundings of the space and create separate moments while keeping the floor plan open,” the duo explained.
A series of cuboid and spherical plinths populate the centre of the store
Brocas and Oudghiri applied Eyewa’s signature bright colour palette to wall display units made from powder-coated plywood. These are composed of repeated geometric shapes, complete with integrated LED strip lights and mirrors.
Watch our talk with Deyan Sudjic and Adam Nathaniel Furman about the impact of Memphis
The designers conceptualised the wall units as sculptural artworks, while cylindrical and cuboid display plinths populate the centre of the store to evoke the feeling of being inside a gallery.
Made from plywood and clear acrylic, these flexible units can be stacked and rearranged to create different layouts.
A series of screens allow customers to virtually try on sunglasses
“The Memphis movement was an important reference for this project,” Brocas told Dezeen. “We love the playful and impactful work of Ettore Sottsass and we thought this approach was very suited to Eyewa’s unapologetic use of colour and its lighthearted spirit.”
“We are also very drawn to minimal artists such as Donald Judd,” he continued. “You can see a touch of post-modernism and a bit of minimalism in the aesthetics of this store.”
The lighting system is integrated between hanging ceiling panels
Above, a ceiling installation made of 39 hanging panels draws customers further into the store, hiding pipes and wires while seamlessly integrating the lighting system. The panels are painted coral on one side and turquoise on the other to add “an element of surprise”.
Interactive screens allow customers to virtually try on sunglasses and different coloured contact lenses while an immersive, turquoise-coloured exam room is located in the back of the store.
An exam room at the back of the store is cast all in turquoise
A series of convex mirrors line the sales counter, recalling the shape of optical lenses.
“We remembered visiting Luis Barragán houses in Mexico and noticing that he places mirrored balls in the rooms to reflect and warp the space,” Brocas explained of their inspiration.
Multicoloured shelving is integrated into the plaster wall
Eyewa’s flagship is the duo’s first project together. Previously, Brocas created interiors for fashion retailers, while Oudghiri has designed a number of buildings in Morocco.
They met while studying at California Polytechnic State University and said their collaboration allowed them to form an interior that is “halfway between eye-catching spatial design and long-lasting architectural principles”.
Another brightly coloured eyewear store to feature on Dezeen is Ace & Tate’s Copenhagen location, where local studio Spacon & X used geometric shapes and primary colours to evoke the experience of entering an artist’s studio.
Photography is by Hussain Khatim.
Read more: More
A palette of plaster, marble, terrazzo and stainless steel was chosen to create interiors that customers want to “reach out and touch” in this Dublin skin clinic by Kingston Lafferty Design.The local firm was commissioned by the Fitzgerald Private Clinic to capture a sense of calm, quiet luxury while maintaining the cleanliness expected from a surgery.
Top image: the Fitzgerald Private Clinic has a marble-clad archway. Above: its retail space features marble counters
“The service offer is premium and luxury, and the spaces that encapsulate it were designed to echo that at every touchpoint,” Kingston Lafferty Design founder Roisin Lafferty told Dezeen.
“We wanted to design a space that was tactile and all-encompassing with a sense of otherworldliness, incorporating associations of sterility with a balance of warmth.”
Kingston Lafferty Design plays with scale inside Dublin restaurant Cinnamon
Spread across two tight, 46-square-metre floors, the Dublin clinic houses retail, storage and waiting areas on the lower level while the first floor encapsulates three treatment rooms, a toilet, staff room and secondary waiting area.
“It is a very small space, so we needed to be clever when designing the layout to get the absolute maximum use from the space,” explained Lafferty. “Every element is jigsawed together to double up, offering both functionality and beauty.”
The interior of the arch is finished with terracotta-coloured tiles
Customers enter the clinic through a street-facing, pink-hued retail store with a micro cement floor and a curved wall lined with plaster tubes. According to Kingston Lafferty Design (KLD), these were designed to resemble putty and made from multiple layers of warm-toned plaster that were built up within a custom mould.
“We wanted the different surfaces to be tactile and combined in unexpected ways, almost calling for people to reach out and touch, and for everything to appear as though it was formed from the structure of the building, as though it was all meant to be there,” said Lafferty.
The clinic’s undulating pink plaster wall has three inset shelves
Set with three brass shelves, the undulating wall doubles as a retail display area and also conceals added storage space behind a fully tube-clad door.
The entrance area is anchored by a black and white terrazzo reception desk that sits under an Acquasanta marble archway. The underside of the arch is clad with zig-zagging matt red tiles that complement the tone of the marble.
The walls and floor of the waiting area are covered in black and white terrazzo
“The arch is the strongest element that frames the clinic experience,” the designer explained. “It highlights the sales and reception desk while encasing and concealing an existing structural beam. We built the arch to align with the depth of the custom reception desk, focusing on materiality both on the front facade and the inner depth.”
The skin clinic, which sits beyond the arch, contrasts with the soft pink tones of the store. It features a stainless steel staircase and black and white terrazzo flooring, with the archway marking the junction between the two.
Treatment rooms are clad in stainless steel
“The staircase was the only structural element that we kept in the design. We sought to make a feature of its angular form and framed it in steel and glass, the steel providing both a tactile wall covering and a vital storage bank with additional retail display for product,” Lafferty said.
An intimate waiting room wrapped in terrazzo and housing a bench seat upholstered in blue leather is located on the other side of the store’s curved, undulating wall.
Brass accents in the toilets add an element of warmth
On the first floor, mirror- and walnut-clad boxes create a series of interconnecting treatment rooms and corridors.
“The treatment rooms needed to be highly clinical, sterile and very easy to keep clean,” said Lafferty. “Hygiene was of the utmost importance to the client. So we wanted to find a balance so that it didn’t feel cold and unwelcoming.”
Blue terrazzo counters the sterility of the stainless steel
Lozenge-shaped mirrors were added to disrupt the rooms’ clean lines and add softness, while subtle colour changes were introduced through a blue tone in the terrazzo and a hint of green in the textured plaster walls and ceilings.
A seamless, full-height wall of walnut wood was added to the corridor outside the treatment rooms to contrast against the steel cabinetry and add warmth to the upper floor.
Health and self-care was a central theme in another of KLD’s recent refurbishment projects. Earlier this year, the studio incorporated green walls, a yoga studio and rooftop terrace into a co-working office in Belfast to help workers unwind.
Photography is by Ruth Maria Murphy.
Read more: More
The minimalist, utilitarian interior of this store in Copenhagen by local studio Aspekt Office provides a neutral backdrop for the colourful clothing and homeware that it sells.Located on Niels Hemmingens Gade where it meets the city’s pedestrian shopping street Strøget, the OCE concept store occupies a building that dates back to 1736.
Products are displayed across white and coral-coloured shelves in the home department
OCE stands for objects, clothes and experiences, in reference to what’s on offer in the lifestyle brand’s roughly 50 Chinese stores and its growing number of European outposts.
Terkel Skou Steffensen and Hans Toft Hornemann of Aspekt Office were asked to create an interior for the brand’s Copenhagen store that would help to attract Scandinavian customers.
The steel storage units blend in with the white walls
“The design requirements for the new store were clear and concise,” said the studio, which has provided creative direction for OCE for several years.
“OCE wanted us to create a Nordic atmosphere and add a Scandinavian look, feel and expression to their brand, to be able to attract Scandinavian costumers. That was paramount.”
An oak-panelled service counter provides visual warmth within the otherwise industrial space
The studio decided to divide the store into different zones, one dedicated to fashion and the other to homeware.
Upon entering at ground floor level, customers are greeted by an oak service counter that provides a warm counterpoint to the all-white interior while effectively splitting the area in two.
Clothing is hung on simple white rails
“In general, we have worked with as few colours as possible to make [OCE’s] colourful products stand out and take the primary focus,” said Steffensen and Hornemann.
“To obtain the essential Scandinavian look and feel, we have worked with carefully selected materials. Scandinavian design is a design movement characterised by simplicity, minimalism, functionality and beauty, and we had to mirror that in OCE’s new store.”
Snarkitecture creates billowing all-white pop-up store for Valextra in Milan
In the home department to the right of the counter, the interior was kept “sterile and raw”, with products displayed on simple white and coral-coloured steel shelves.
On the other side, the fashion department sees clothing hung on white steel rails and changing rooms concealed behind grey wool curtains. A grey linoleum floor, designed to resemble concrete, was used throughout to create a calm and relaxing atmosphere.
Grey wool curtains separate the changing rooms
Several of the shop’s display tables are topped with a speckled, terrazzo-like material that is created from recycled yoghurt pots by UK company Smile Plastics.
“Since the store is very small and compact, we made it our mission to utilise even the tiniest little corner,” explained the studio, which has transformed the previously unused space under the stairs into an exhibition area with built-in shelving.
“In this way, we highlight the stairs of the store and lead people to the first floor.”
A staircase with traditional turned wood spindles was painted white
The store’s minimal white interior was also designed to be respectful to the surrounding architecture.
“The store is located in a pedestrian area, surrounded by historical buildings with bricks facades and stucco decorations,” the studio explained.
“Another common feature of these buildings are the large, high windows that allow in as much light as possible, but also allow you to see the beautiful surrounding edifices,” it added.
“We wanted the shop to have a look that blends in homogeneously, no dramatic pops of colour, no discontinuity with the neighbouring interiors that you can see through the windows. The soft palette blends in with the surrounding environment, the materiality chosen is simple and discreet, yet modern and fresh.”
The oak counter separates the homeware from the fashion department
Other designers who have attempted to capture a Scandinavian aesthetic in a retail setting include Ulrika Bernhardtz, the creative director of lifestyle brand Arket, who designed the brand’s Copenhagen store using an all-grey palette.
In London, architecture firm Farrells conceptualised the interior of a mixed-use shopping and dining development to reflect Japanese and Nordic culture, while the Soho store of clothing brand Eytys references Swedish brutalism and postmodernism.
Read more: More
Dutch architect Anne Holtrop has remodelled Maison Margiela’s concept store in London adding walls cast in textile moulds to reflect the brand’s garment construction techniques.Located at 22 Bruton Street, the boutique is laid out across 190-square-metres and displays Maison Margiela’s Co-Ed collections, with men’s and women’s ready-to-wear alongside accessories such as shoes, jewellery and eyewear.
Gypsum partition walls separate the retail space
The store features a pale, tonal colour palette in keeping with the Parisian label’s all-white studio, with the plaster walls and ceilings retained in their natural finish and floors and fixtures made from travertine.
A number of the store’s walls and columns were individually hand-cast in textile moulds, leaving behind folds and dents to create the illusion of fabric billowing in the wind.
Floors tables and shelving are made from carved travertine
This unconventional casting method is intended to reflect a garment construction technique used by the fashion house that is designed to disrupt the “anonymity of the lining” and reveal the inner workings of a garment.
Wooden curtain drapes around a lift inside Maison Margiela’s Milan store
“The gypsum casts in textile formwork translate the ‘anonymity of the lining’ concept into an architectural element,” explained Maison Margiela.
“After removing the textile formwork, the imprint of the textile remains visible on the surface of the walls and columns, together with the pleats of the textile and volume of the gypsum that pushed the formwork out. The walls and columns are turned inside out – we look at the lining, the interior of the wall.”
The Bruton Street store houses clothing as well as accessories
Holtrop, who founded Amsterdam-based Studio Anne Holtrop in 2009, installed items of “misfit” furniture throughout the space. Featuring familiar forms that have been warped and skewed, these were designed to lean and fold around the interior.
To lighten the store’s travertine floor and carved fixtures – including shelves, display tables and seats – Anne Holstrop Studio developed a technique that involves filling the stone’s natural indentations with colour-contrasting epoxy resin in optical white.
The gypsum walls are cast in fabric moulds
“Normally the porosity of travertine is carefully filled with an epoxy in exactly the same colour as the stone,” explained the studio. “With an infill of white epoxy, the porosity of the stone adds an accurate drawing, a staining of the material itself.”
The finish was inspired by another of Maison Margiela’s characteristic techniques called décortiqué, where haute couture technicians cut through the layers of a garment in order to reveal its construction.
“All that remains is the skeleton, the core components, which enable you to recognise what the item once was,” explained Maison Margiela. “It entails cutting around the seams to emphasise the structure and detailing.”
Indentations in the travertine were filled with white resin
In contrast to the rest of the store, the walls and ceilings of the fitting rooms are coated in layers of hand-brushed, high gloss paint reminiscent of Japanese lacquer cabinets.
According to Maison Margiela, the store reflects its “evolved visual language” which was developed by John Galliano after taking the helm as creative director in 2014.
Changing room doors are finished with a high-gloss lacquer
Holstrop’s gypsum-cast design was first introduced during the label’s Artisanal AW 2018 show, in which Galliano revealed the structures, interlinings and inner padding of clothes that would normally be concealed.
Photography is by Henry Bourne.
Read more: More
Norm Architects used natural materials such as oak, clay, linen and travertine to create a jewellery showroom in Copenhagen informed by modernist artists’ studios.Located on Ny Østergade in the city’s old town, the flagship store belongs to jewellery brand Dulong and features an open-plan layout broken only by a few existing cast-iron columns.
Dulong’s flagship store features travertine tables and counters
Its “serene, soft and welcoming” interior is arranged much like a living room, with a curved sofa and round coffee table at its centre.
To enhance the sense of homeliness, the local firm opted for natural materials such as oak flooring, clay walls, travertine display tables and caramel-coloured suede and linen curtains.
The walls were finished with clay
According to Norm Architects, the selection is intended to reflect the jewellery brand’s “timeless and exclusive” pieces but was also inspired by the studios of great modernist artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuși.
Granite boulders feature in jewellery showroom by Richard Stampton Architects
The oak parquet flooring is original, while everything else, including the clay walls, has been added.
Burnished brass, glass and walnut feature as material accents across the store’s lighting, as well as in the bespoke furniture pieces that were designed for the space by Norm Architects.
The studio kept the original oak parquet flooring
A colonnade stretches across the entire back wall of the store in a nod to the neoclassical architecture of Copenhagen. Within each of its recesses sits a travertine plinth with a glass vitrine displaying an individual piece of jewellery or artwork.
At the back of the store is a private room where customers can try on jewellery, alongside a separate kitchen space and restroom.
A colonnade runs along the store’s back wall
“The quality craftsmanship with which the jewellery has been designed is reflected in the carefully selected choice of finishes and elegantly feminine, balanced tonal palette,” said the Danish practice.
Founded in 2008 by Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen and Kasper Rønn Von Lotzbeck, Norm Architects is renowned for its understated design and sensitive use of natural colours and materials.
Linen curtains and suede-clad display cases feature throughout the space
In Tokyo, the studio renovated a pair of formerly light-starved apartments to create “transparent” living spaces with concrete walls, wooden floors and simple furnishings.
Meanwhile in Hamburg, the practice used oak, grey stone and yellow-tinted glass in a minimal makeover of a department store’s menswear section.
Photography is by Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen.
Read more: More
Hazard lines and metal shelving are some of the industrial finishes that Torafu Architects has included in bag brand Freitag’s store in Kyoto – which even includes its own workshop.Freitag’s Kyoto store, which is shortlisted in the small retail interior category of the 2020 Dezeen Awards, occupies what was formerly two separate retail units in the city’s Nakagyo-ku district.
The interiors of the store have been designed by Torafu Architects to look like Freitag’s logistics warehouse at the brand’s headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.
Top image: the store’s exterior. Above: hazard lines have been painted on some of the store’s surfaces
Industrial-style details have been incorporated throughout the 80-square-metre space, which the architecture practice said they left in a “skeleton state”. For example, black-and-yellow hazard lines have been painted around one of the store’s structural columns.
Similar lines appear beneath the green cash desk. Just opposite sits a matching rubber-topped counter where customers will be able to set down and inspect any potential purchases.
PVC flap curtains were used to screen off the shop’s storeroom, which is enclosed by a volume clad in wood-wool boards. Simple strip lights have also been fitted across the ceiling.
Freitag’s bags are displayed on metal shelves or stored in drawers
Bags are displayed on metal shelves or on top of pallets which have been stacked up in the store’s front window.
Uniform rows of drawers that run across the entire left-hand side of the store contain more Freitag bags, each of which is crafted from recycled truck tarpaulin.
The brand first removes any eyelets or straps left on the tarps before cutting, washing and turning them into a range of different bag models such as backpacks, totes or holdalls.
Freitag’s Sweat-Yourself-Shop is a tiny factory for making bags
Towards the rear of the store is a workshop, where customers will be able to experiment with using tarp offcuts themselves and turn them into a small accessory of their choice.
The store includes a workshop where customers can make their own accessories
More industrial touches appear on Freitag’s facade, where a red-steel beam has been installed in place of the wall that once divided the two retail units.
A large drawing of a truck has also been created on the store’s side elevation so that customers “never forget the origin of every unique specimen”.
The store’s side elevation features a mural of a truck
Torafu Architects was founded in 2004 by Koichi Suzuno and Shinya Kamuro. The practice’s Freitag Kyoto store will compete against four other projects in the small interior category of this year’s Dezeen Awards.
Amongst them is an Aesop store in Shinjuku, which features a contrasting mix of steel and plaster surfaces.
Also on the list is Small Icon, a tiny bakery in Yokohama that’s decorated in the same warm, golden hues as a loaf of bread.
Photography is by Taichi Ano.
Read more: More
